During a speech she gave at an event I attended five months ago, a friend made a request as a passing remark in an illustration she was using. But earlier this week, I had the opportunity to fulfill that offhand request, and I did it while quoting what she’d said on that occasion word for word. When I did, she responded incredulously saying, “You were listening,” and I answered, “Of course, I was.”I did what I did and said what I said because one of the primary ways we honor others is by listening to them, and not just to hear their words, but to understand what they meant and, more importantly, how to be responsive to them. For instance, although it took me longer than it should have, over the years of our marriage, I discovered the importance of expressing my love for my wife by being fully present when she has something to say, asking clarifying questions to make certain I’m truly understanding her, and then being careful to respond with appropriate action.So, I get what Jesus was saying to his disciples in John By beginning with the conditional particle if, he wasn’t questioning the sincerity of his followers’ love but the type. The word translated as love in this verse is the one the New Testament uses almost exclusively to describe the kind God has. It’s a sacrificial love defined more by what it does than what it feels. Oh, it’s replete with feelings, but it’s not satisfied until those feelings motivate a costly offering of itself. Jesus wasn’t demanding action as proof of their love. Instead, he was inviting them into the kind of love that results in action.Then, there’s the word translated here as keep. The original Greek is less about doing as instructed and more about how those instructions are valued. It’s not describing obedience for the sake of obeying, the kind required of a servant. It refers to the sort of careful attention and diligence one gives to carrying out the directions of someone held in highest regard like the requests of a dear friend.And that’s what’s at the heart of this profound, one-sentence verse of Scripture. Jesus wasn’t acting like an immature teenager saying, “If you really loved me, you would do what I say.” He was welcoming those closest to him into a deeper form of relationship. In fact, being responsive to the loving commands of our precious Savior is so tightly integrated into the fabric of the kind of relationship he wants with us that it’s an indispensable part of what defines it. 1 John So, I think this is probably an appropriate moment to evaluate how responsive we are to the Lord’s commands. And if that reflection reveals an approach that’s more casual than careful, we need to be honest with ourselves about what that might be saying regarding the nature of our love for him. But the beauty of John